


a place on the coast

by teikouarc



Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Literal Sleeping Together, i just think they're neat, loosely connected drabbles, the seaside cottage thoughts that have been plaguing my life, they're all married thank you for your time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:09:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27609485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teikouarc/pseuds/teikouarc
Summary: The place they find isn’t anything special at first glance.**They all knew where they wanted to end up after saving the world. Barnes had a disjointed dream; Zolf and Cel wanted to make that dream a reality.
Relationships: Celiquillithon "Cel" Sidebottom/Zolf Smith, Commander James Barnes/Celiquillithon "Cel" Sidebottom, Commander James Barnes/Celiquilliton "Cel" Sidebottom/Zolf Smith, Commander James Barnes/Zolf Smith
Comments: 4
Kudos: 18





	a place on the coast

**Author's Note:**

> hey y'all. you want some fuckin..... fluff? you want some small domestic scenes? since my brain doesn't like telling full stories, here are some snapshots from barnes, cel, and zolf's life after the world recovers.

The place they find isn’t anything special at first glance. 

The previous owners hadn’t taken care of it like they should, and the outside had taken quite a beating from how nasty the weather had been the past few years, but Barnes' eyes were practically sparkling as he took the cottage in. It was a relatively small home, but luckily neither Zolf nor Cel cared much about having a large home. While they weren’t exactly hurting for money and could have afforded something nicer (read: bigger, newer, fewer holes in various structurally important areas), it had been clear Barnes loved it from the first. 

It would’ve been a quite pretty cottage when it was first built; it had a small wooden fence out front, one of the gate doors hanging crooked due to a broken hinge, and the other half buried in sand. The chipped remnants of paint indicated the whole thing used to be white. The house sat perched above the sand, wooden supports holding it up. (Cel would have made it work of course, but they had shared a look of relief with Zolf when they found the supports at least in good shape.) Three steps led up to a wraparound porch and their front door. 

“Enough room for three chairs,” Barnes said, his voice wavering slightly with excitement. Cel smiled, and mentally noted the large hole in the porch where someone had seemingly dropped right through. The hole was certainly the right size for a humanoid creature, and it would be a lie if Cel said their stomach didn’t do flips as Barnes strode confidently across the flooring. Zolf must have noticed something in their expression, because he reached out and took their hand in his, giving it a comforting squeeze. 

The interior was fairly simple. There was a single bedroom, a bathroom, and a small kitchen with a sitting area by the front window. Zolf and Cel shared a look as Barnes swept through the place. Zolf’s thumb rubbed comforting circles on Cel’s hand while they tallied up all the areas that would need attending to over the next week or so. Hole punched through a wall, a single floorboard pried up and missing. There were little things throughout the cottage, but it was all manageable. The three of them would have this place looking like a proper home in no time. 

All of that was fine or good, even; the thing that made this home special was beyond the front gate. 

There was a sandy path that led directly from the house to the ocean, surrounded by spotty beachgrass. The three of them had visited a few times before buying the home, and Cel had confirmed after loads of testing and measuring that they would be able to safely build a small dock on their quiet stretch of beach. 

The three of them stood there, a light breeze playing with their hair and clothing, and they stared out over their small piece of ocean. 

Cel knew one could find home anywhere, really; they had had many homes over the course of their life after all. The place was almost irrelevant. But they had to admit, staring over the blue-grey ocean with the two men they had found their new home in, they had gotten lucky on where they landed. 

** 

“Food's on!” Zolf called, leaning out their newly painted front door to get the attention of his two favorite hobby shipwrights. 

One of said hobbyists sprung out from under the beginnings of their fishing boat, completely covered with sawdust and sand. Their hair, while still quite vertical, was now more grey with blond streaks rather than blond with grey. Cel gave themself a violent shake, a fine mist of debris falling off of them. 

“Better dust yourself off too James or Zolf'll scold us again.” They said, grinning at their husband as he also emerged from beneath the boat. 

“I do not understand why he’s so fussy about it. We live on a beach for god's sake. You’re gonna get sand in the floorboards. It’s an inevitability.” Barnes grumbled, shaking himself clean regardless. 

“Yes, yes, but you know how he gets about sweeping! For whatever reason, it is the thing he has decided he cares about, so…?” Cel stepped closer to Barnes, smiling while raising an eyebrow. 

“So, we care too.” Barnes muttered, rolling his eyes and smiling despite himself. 

“Correct!” Cel leaned in and kissed him. It was a quick and sweet thing, and when Cel pulled away, Barnes automatically made a move to pull them back in before catching himself. Cel snorted and ran a hand through his hair to get some of the more persistent sand out of it. “Later.” 

Barnes took their hand, and laced their fingers together. The two of them walked up the path, guided by the promise of a good stew and _later_. 

** 

Cel awakens one night with a gasp, only the weight of Barnes’ head on their chest keeping them from jolting straight up. Zolf’s bedside lamp is still on, the dwarf propped up against his pillows and reading a book. He puts the book down quietly and shifts so he can more easily brush stray strands of hair off Cel’s forehead. The caress was gentle, and the familiar weight of his hands in addition to the rhythm of Barnes’ deep breathing helped to ground them. 

“Nightmare?” Zolf asked quietly. Cel nodded. He moved to cup their cheek instead. Cel leaned into the touch, eyes fluttering closed again. “It’s okay. We’re all safe. Go back to sleep, love.” 

Cel feels Zolf lean down to give them a kiss on their forehead, and they smile without opening their eyes again. Barnes shifts against them, burying his face into their shoulder and sighs softly. The nightmares would likely never go away. The bright oranges and reds of fires were etched on the backs of their eyelids, and they still remembered the screams and cries vividly. Those things never really went away. (Even if they were painful, Cel didn’t _want_ them to go away.) 

But here, now, in their cottage that creaked in the wind and somehow never kept the chill out, Cel was safe. The people they loved were safe. That, at least, was enough.


End file.
